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I'd been meaning to find and post the online version of this for about a month; but since the story it's covering is moving at the speed of government it should still be current...
As long as there have been work-issued mobile devices, businesses have turned a blind eye — or an inconsistent one — to a thorny issue underlying the unspoken expectation for employees with those phones and laptops: always be on call.
Now federal labor regulators may revise a standard governing what amount of time should be considered too insignificant to compensate outside scheduled work hours.
Of course by the time the feds get around to coming up with a standard for checking email/etc on your phone; it will probably already be superseded by direct neural messaging implants.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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Dan Neely wrote: direct neural messaging implants.
I hope not, usually the first 3-4 answers I think are a bit... unpolite.
GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP. -- TNCaver
"When you have eliminated the JavaScript, whatever remains must be an empty page." -- Mike Hankey
"just eat it, eat it"."They're out to mold, better eat while you can" -- HobbyProggy
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You'd better start retraining your mind now. Just thinking that about your boss when he messages you at 3am when you're on vacation will get you fired after your implant is in.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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If he knew what I was thinking he'd be pretty scared to fire me 
GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP. -- TNCaver
"When you have eliminated the JavaScript, whatever remains must be an empty page." -- Mike Hankey
"just eat it, eat it"."They're out to mold, better eat while you can" -- HobbyProggy
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If you want someone to work for you, you pay them.
Dan Neely wrote: Now federal labor regulators may revise a standard governing what amount of time should be considered too insignificant to compensate outside scheduled work hours.
Government can dictate whatever it wants. If it is not paid, I will not work. If it is insignificant, it can wait until I am at work.
Unpaid work is nonsense.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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I agree completely. Anything done outside of normal business hours is only done under exceptional circumstances.
But, if you remember the article from a few days ago about the average IT worker doing about 50 hours of work/week despite only half of us doing any extra hours (meaning the other half was averaging 60ish hours/week), a lot of our peers are either crazy/stupid or stuck in really crappy jobs. Their employers deserve good lartings; and the sooner it happens the easier it'll be for us to find a new job that doesn't suck if/when we end up needing them.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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It should be in the job spec and remunerated, my SIL was on call 24/7 but they paid him an on call bonus.
I don't think you are going to be able to regulate it. Start working on an ad blocker for neural implants, the next (or later) big thing.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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There's a difference between getting paid to do a job, or getting paid to perform tasks.
Doing a job to me means to take on responsibilities. Taking on responsibilities requires more flexibility and sometimes do things outside your normal working routine if the situation demands is. It doesn't mean you have to be available 24/7. It's being capable to judge the urgency of the situation yourself and then having the balls to tell people when they can reach you and when they can't.
If you're paid for performing tasks, then you can demand to get paid extra for everything you do outside your normal working hours, but then the guy who does the job will decide when they call you; not the other way around.
You decide which one is the better deal. 
.
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If on salary, then salary covers everything.
If hourly, then you shouldn't be doing anything for your employer when off-the-clock and the employer can't expect you to.
Some years back, my wife was on an hourly job (in a call center no less) and the workers were expected to be in the call center, logged in, and to have read their email before their shift began -- they couldn't read their email from home, but they were expected to do it on their own time. Their meager argument was that if you worked at McDonald's you would be expected to show up in your uniform; you wouldn't be paid to get dressed. A class-action suit was brought against the company, the company lost, my wife and others received a small compensation, the company was then swallowed by a larger company.
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There's confidence, and then there's hyperbole. When Microsoft suggests that its latest release is a 20 year paradigm-creator, which one is it? "Hyperbole is the best thing ever!"
Yeah, a repeat blurb, but really suitable here.
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20 years of darkness and W10.
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There’s a cliché of tech professionals as hard-charging individuals, more than willing to give up food and sleep in order to more quickly build the latest bit of revolutionary software. Work pays for the life, but you shouldn't live to work
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Kent Sharkey wrote: Work pays for the life, but you shouldn't live to work
As Han Solo said: "Yeah well that's the real trick, isn't it.."
Thank the Maker that all of the Hippest software development startups are more than willing to stock the encampment with free beer, stocked fridges, free vending machines with the sausage/cheese stick combo pack things (damn those are good), catering, ping-pong, video games, casual Fridays, Nerf stuff, beer, cots, burial plots, etc.!** Who needs a life with work like that! 
** Not to mention being able to have a manager whose job it is to come around and stick a finger up of everyone's arse for one hour a day, thereby causing you to have to work an extra hour to actually do the work you were supposed to be doing during said hour... Just sayin'... 
... having only that moment finished a vigorous game of Wiff-Waff and eaten a tartiflet. - Henry Minute
I'm still looking (eagerly) for wisdom in terms of best practices in OO design; and I doubt I'll ever quit looking. - BillWoodruff
Programming is a race between programmers trying to build bigger and better idiot proof programs, and the universe trying to build bigger and better idiots, so far... the universe is winning. - gavindon
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Kent Sharkey wrote: There’s a cliché of tech professionals as hard-charging individuals tweakers, more than willing to give up food and sleep
... having only that moment finished a vigorous game of Wiff-Waff and eaten a tartiflet. - Henry Minute
I'm still looking (eagerly) for wisdom in terms of best practices in OO design; and I doubt I'll ever quit looking. - BillWoodruff
Programming is a race between programmers trying to build bigger and better idiot proof programs, and the universe trying to build bigger and better idiots, so far... the universe is winning. - gavindon
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The new unified API endpoint gathers (or will soon gather) all of the important data access a developer would want from Microsoft services together, meaning that instead of having to write to many different authorizations for the many varied services available from Microsoft, Office and Azure. One Endpoint to bind them, etc. etc.
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Shame they have made such a horses arse of the identity management for Personal Accounts, Organisational Accounts etc. across Azure, O365, VS and god knows what else.
When trying to move in and out of all these systems I never know if I am coming or going!
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Today we are announcing that Team Foundation Server and Visual Studio Team Services provides Team Build support for Subversion. How did I miss this HUGE news yesterday
Next they'll add SourceSafe support
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They tried to add source safe,
but it caused unresolved conflicts,
so they rolled back to the last known good version.
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Subversion is one of the best version control systems out there.......whereas SourceSafe is better left in the past where it belongs. Seriously, if you're still using SourceSafe you need to take a long hard look at your tooling.
"There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult." - C.A.R. Hoare
Home | LinkedIn | Google+ | Twitter
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Hearing proclamations of the death of Java is everyday business for this 20-year old giant in IT. But with the recent evangelist layoffs, rumours of Oracle’s neglect and a subdued JavaOne conference, it feels like something has changed. But should Java developers care, asks Jason Whaley. It doesn't bother me (but then I haven't written any Java for over a decade)
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Let Oracle release Java from its vice-like grip ...
... and hand over ownership to the open-source community, like Python, R, etc.
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Microsoft has had many successful products — Windows, Office, Azure, and Xbox, to name a few. There are, however, many projects that never took off because company executives didn't see the potential of what they had built at the time. The crystal ball is a little foggy
And hindsight, etc.
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meh. It's not about the idea. It's about the execution.
Microsoft gave all of them a red hot shot but did it sub-optimally.
Google and Apple (the ones who evidently ate Microsoft's lunch) had a better, more integrated, more complete offering and built off it. Instead of launching as a side product (which many of those MS ideas seemed to be) they launched as a fundamental piece of an overall plan.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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I was just about to disagree with you when you said:
Chris Maunder wrote: Google and Apple (the ones who evidently ate Microsoft's lunch) had a better, more integrated, more complete offering and built off it.
But then you went and nailed it.
Chris Maunder wrote: Instead of launching as a side product (which many of those MS ideas seemed to be)
They put stuff out there and assume that being first will give them the win. They often forget that they need to keep working on something after launch (even HoTMaiL was almost ignored to death for a while).
TTFN - Kent
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And then there's the Architecture Astronauts they keep hiring as well. 
I think your point about trying to be first is very true. Many failures and few successes come from being first. You do not want to be first; you want to learn from the fools who go first -- see what the reaction is, what works and what doesn't. The first product also can't be compared to anything so there's no way know whether or not the product is worthwhile -- but the second has got to be better than the first.
Consider that your company is one of several gladiators who have to fight a lion -- let the other gladiators go first!
Would you rather produce Teddy Ruxpin or Tickle Me Elmo? 
In some of those cases (e.g. Terraserver) the failure wasn't just about being first either; it was about being too early. In fact, how popular would Goog Learth be without the ability to take it mobile?
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